Just had an email from a fellow aviator on the subject of using fingers for elementary flying training. He made the following comments ;
How many fingers for a climbing turn?
Do we wear luminous gloves for night flying?
Do we sit on our hands in cloud?
Maybe someone could design a CASA approved inflatable hand to be mounted on the coaming for these occasions....with a standby manual reversion cardboard hand in case of loss of pressurisation in the inflatable one.
And on another matter of instructor teaching technique. Why is 15 degrees used for climbing turns in the circuit? Why is 30 degrees of bank considered a medium turn and 45 degrees a steep turn? Where did these figures originate?
I ask those questions because dusting off my treasured original of the USAF Manual of Primary Flying dated 1957 I see that in USA a gentle turn is defined as 20 degrees angle of bank. Page 32 says that the medium turn is one of 45 degrees angle of bank and that common usage of the medium turn is in the circuit and gliding turns. I can just see a new instructor having kittens if his student went beyond 30 degrees angle of bank in the circuit.
The USAF Manual goes on to say that steep turns are 60 degrees angle of bank and are used for rapid changes of direction, clearing purposes and maximum performance manoeuvres.
So why has there been a dumbing down of turn bank angles over the years in Australian flying schools when I learned to fly at Bankstown countless years ago we were taught the steeper bank angles as used in the USAF manual?